


between two points

by Alltheroads



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Asexual Aromantic Pidge, Coran only makes a cameo, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fluff, Happy Ending, Lance (Voltron) Has ADHD, M/M, Polyamorous Allura, Red String of Fate, literally i am incapable of writing a sad ending, pining lance, platonic shallura
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-18 19:30:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 20,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13106994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alltheroads/pseuds/Alltheroads
Summary: Being able to see the Red String of Fate all around him feels more like a curse than a gift each time Keith looks down at his own empty fingers.





	between two points

**Author's Note:**

> thanks to Aggpo for editing and mackaroon708 for betareading!
> 
> i worked on this fic for over a month and i'm excited and nervous to share this with all of you. i really hope you enjoy my take on the red string lore. also: happy holidays!

Walking through the streets is much less distracting than it used to be. The small town he moved to recently helps with his problem. Even still, Keith spends a lot of time looking downwards, avoiding the tangled mess he sees every where he goes.

While he isn't a fan of the impending cold weather, he has to admit that the changing of the leaves are kind of pretty. He thinks that he needed a change, too. 

Luckily, he knows someone out here. Shiro, an old mentor of his invited him to check out the small town. When Keith found that the slower pace of life here was strangely easier to cope with, he decided on a whim to move here. Until he can find a place of his own (and he is looking through of craigslist ads) he’ll be crashing with Shiro. It’s not so bad, even if the steady stream of advice does get old from time to time. 

Arriving here kind of forced him to look for jobs. There’s no great passion of his that he has the time or money to chase. As long as he's making money, he doesn't mind what he’s doing. Which leads him to a job in a local garage. He grew up learning how to fix cars. After he learned how to steal them, anyway. 

On the bus, Keith pulls out his outdated as fuck iPod and slips in the equally old headphones. Classic metal filters through, letting him grow distracted. He leans his head against the window. Outside, he can see people milling about, walking their dogs, bumping into one another. 

All those brightly colored strings lengthening, shortening, twisting. Tangling. He scowls drums his fingers against his thigh. Every day he has to see this. He's gotten better at tuning them out, but it's never been easy.

Keith has stopped flinching when they phase right through him, but he doesn't drive until it's later at night when most people are asleep. He's seen couples together and their strings are going in opposite directions. He's seen two friends sit across from each other at at a restaurant with their strings attached, completely unaware. He could go up and tell them, but who would believe him? 

As far as Keith knows, he's the only one who can see the strings of fate. 

Once or twice, he's seen people meet up. The string shortening between the two. At that point, Keith can almost never help himself but watch. He wonders if it's part of his curse- if that's even what it is. The sudden connection that people make. As if they had known each other for years. He wants to hate that moment. Even now, after all these years, he's not sure _how_ he feels about the moment between two people. 

Fortunately for him, he doesn't have to think about it too often. It's a rare enough occasion on its own, and Keith goes out of his way to avoid people anyway. He closes his eyes again. That helps too. 

When he gets to work, he nods at Hunk, his boss. He spotted Keith at a coffee shop about two weeks. Apparently, the guy was overlooking his shoulder and saw that he was looking for a job. Then, he asked if Keith had any mechanical skills. While it annoyed him that Hunk wasn't minding his own business, he knows he's pretty damn lucky to have found a job so soon. It also doesn't involve him talking to people too much. Just cars and bikes. 

He misses riding his own. 

While working on a station wagon, he zones out completely. He barely even hears the music playing over the speaker. That's why he's surprised when Hunk shows up behind him. He's got a nasty habit of doing that, too. 

Keith wipes the sweat away from his forehead. 

"What's up?" He asks. Usually, Hunk doesn't bother him while he's actually working. 

"Uh..." Hunk pokes his two index fingers together. Keith can see his red string of fate moving just slightly. It's distracting as hell. The teal colored string is moving a little more frantically. He's got a platonic soulmate that must live nearby. "I was... well, I was wondering if you would want to, um?" 

Keith frowns and crosses his arms. Was Hunk about to ask if he can stay overtime? It's not his first choice, but he could use the extra cash. "Hunk," He says. "Spit it out." This sort of attitude has not helped him keep jobs over the years, but Hunk has told him that he enjoys Keith's grumpiness. 

"Do you wanna go out after work? With me and a bunch of friends? I know you're new to town, and I thought it might be cool if I invited you, you could meet people..."

Keith has been to been to a few of these welcome to the new place/job dinners before. They are almost always awkward. Keith would love to say no, but Hunk has this ability to make whatever he asks for some sort of imperative. 

"Maybe," He says, before turning back to his work. There are more important things to focus on than what might happen, or some stupid after work activity. 

"Y'know, Pidge? I think she's mentioned you before," Hunk continues. Apparently, taking a hint is not something he does easily. "She's coming tonight, too. And uh, with another friend of ours? Lance? Has she ever mentioned him?" 

Keith hangs his head. If Pidge is coming, she should have warned him this was coming. Unfortunately, she thinks that he should go out and make friends as much as Shiro does. He supposes he should be grateful that they give a shit about him, but it's annoying to go through this process all over again. "No, I don't think she's mentioned Lance before," Though, she might have brought him up before. He's bad with names. 

"Well, he's coming too. He's a pretty nice guy. Goes to the local university? You probably would've bumped into him eventually since his car is..." Hunk makes a disgusted noise. Keith snickers a little. "But yeah. So you should come tonight. TGIF, you know?"

"It's Wednesday," 

"No, I mean that's where we're going. TGIF. Their food isn't actually that good, but the lava cake on the dessert menu is one of the best. Except for the bakery downtown. But TGIF is closer, so-" 

"Fine. Okay. I'll go," At the very least, he'll finally get to see Pidge. It's been a year or two since they last met up. And it'll get a few people off his back for a while. He's got a few dollars saved up to go to some shitty chain restaurant.

"Great!" Hunk replies. "Oh, okay. That's awesome. Hey, Lance, he says he'll come along!" 

Keith frowns, looking up to see what Hunk is talking about. There’s a large window in Hunk’s office that overlooks the garage. Inside is some guy who jumps at the sudden attention. So that’s Lance. Why couldn’t he just come out himself? Lance smacks his forehead, but waves back after a moment. He doesn't look too annoyed. Now that he’s distracted from his work, Keith takes a step forward to get a closer look at this guy he’s supposed to chill with later.

There's something off about him. Keith can see that yeah, he's objectively attractive, but that's not what's drawing his eye. Where's his string? It's hard to pinpoint exactly which string is coming from which person, but after years, Keith has been able to decipher which string goes where pretty well. But now? 

There are plenty of strings in the area, as always. Maybe it's on his other hand? That sometimes happens. Keith squints. Nothing. Huh. That's- he's not even trying to make the strings fade from his sight. What's going on? Now he almost _wants_ to go to dinner.

The Lance guy seems to have noticed that Keith was staring at him pretty intensely, and decides to wave in his direction too. Slowly, Keith raises a hand to acknowledge him. A moment later, and Lance is being pulled into a Hunk hug.

He's gotten so distracted that he didn't even noticed Hunk walk off.

This is ridiculous. He has work to do. 

Keith closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, and wills the strings to fade, even if just for a moment. 

-

After work, Keith changes back into his clothes. He's got a headache from concentrating so long. It's worth it for a few hours of reprieve. It took years to be able to make the strings fade for a few hours. One day he's going to make them fade for good. 

He shoves his coveralls in his locker. The moment the door slams shut, Hunk is waiting there. Keith nearly jumps out of his skin. This guy has been hanging around Pidge too much, he thinks. He can creep just as well as she can. 

"You about ready to go?" Hunk asks with a nervous smile. His teal string is even more frantic than before. Interesting. 

"I was going to go home and shower," Keith says. 

"Aw, don't worry about that. We're all buddies here!" Hunk nearly throws an arm around his shoulder, then seems to think twice about it. Good. "C'mon, Pidge and Lance are waiting outside. We're taking my car since it's the best and safest one," 

Better than taking the bus, he guesses. 

He follows Hunk outside where the others are. 

First he sees Pidge and honestly? He's happy to see her. It really has been too long. Standing in front of her now he feels kind of like an asshole for not realizing that sooner. 

More than that though, he realizes that she's the one that Hunk is connected to. As long as he’s known Pidge, he’s seen those platonic teal colored strings. He didn’t think she’d already met one (or both) of her soulmates. But hell, it makes sense the more he thinks about it. Pidge has as much of a fascination with machines as Hunk. They've probably built things like super computers together. He almost laughs thinking about it. 

Then he turns to Lance and all the laughter dies within him. 

The oddness before is clear now that he’s standing right in front of him. There's no string. Lance doesn't have a string. No teal, or blood red. Just... empty fingers like his own. Keith stares. 

"Why, hello there," Lance says, stepping closer to him. "The name's-"

"Oh, for the love of- save it, Lance," Pidge interjects, pushing him out of the way so that she can hug Keith. "He was my friend first, therefore I get to say hi first," 

It takes a moment for Keith to hug back. He's still kind of staring at Lance. No string, he keeps thinking to himself. He's got no string. No soulmate. "Okay, well, you already know him," Lance pries Pidge away from him. Then sticks his hand out. His empty hand. "As I was saying, the name's-" 

"Everyone in the car! Those lava cakes aren't going to eat themselves!" Hunk is already in the driver's seat. 

Lance groans. "C'mon man," Then he slinks off to the other side of the car to sit in the front. 

Keith is left standing there like an idiot. Confused, and a little lost. How could this have happened? Everyone has a string, he thinks. The only person who doesn't have one is... he stares down at his own hands. 

"You okay?" Pidge says. "You look pale. Paler. Which is saying something," Despite the joke, she looks concerned. 

"Yeah, I'm... yeah. Fine. Let's go," He tells her. With some concentrating, Keith will be able to get this off his mind. Probably. He's sure. 

-

The memories of before are far away, and almost unreal.

Alone in his room for the night, Keith listened to the sound of the adults talking to one another. He knew his new foster parents and himself were not 'clicking'. Their word, not his. But it was true enough. Keith was not meant to be part of their family.

Being passed around from one family to another he's learned that he doesn't really belong to any family. He was 13, he knew what his odds were of being adopted. Some people, he thought, just aren't meant to fit in anywhere. He was one of them. It was okay to be one of those people.

Or maybe... maybe there's no such thing as belonging at all. Maybe people just force themselves into relationships and families because they're afraid of being all alone. Maybe there's no such thing as love, as fate. Humans were meant to be alone.

He wiped at his eyes. At least he had figured it out while he was still young enough. It would take awhile to be okay with it, he thought, but at least he knew.

That night, he had a dream. Or a nightmare. A large, cloaked figure moved through the air as if made of nothing. It was coming towards him. He wasn’t sure if they were human, or if they were just an entity made of smoke. The figure towered over Keith, but for some reason, he wasn’t not afraid. Then, the figure enveloped him in one smooth motion.

It's then he finds out he was wrong. The figure wasn't black- just all the colours combined. He was suddenly looking at colors he'd never seen before. The smoke became tighter, becoming twined. He was cocooned in it, like a spider's prey. That's when the fear set in.

A moment later and he awoke. He was panting, startled by what he just saw. This wasn't the first time he had a weird dream, but it was the first time he felt like something had shifted in the world around him. He held his hands up and looked at them. They looked the same as they always have. It's just a dream, he told himself. There's nothing to worry about.

The next day, he saw them for the first time. All the strings, connecting people. They zigzagged across roads. Though they had no corporeal form, Keith couldn’t help but try to dodge them. He asked his foster parents if they saw what he did. When they looked at him with concern, he realized that he is in fact the only one. Within days, Keith also realized he's the only one without a string around his finger. No blue, no red. Just long, pale empty fingers.

He wondered why he had been given this sight. He wondered if he went crazy. But he never spent too long thinking about why he'd been singled out. That's one question he already knew the answer to.

-

It turns out to be impossible to ignore.

All the theories that Keith has come up for himself over the years flood back into his mind.

Dinner goes by in a blur. He remembers ordering some mozzarella sticks. Lance tried to talk to him a few times, but Keith couldn't give anything more than a one or two word answer. This shouldn't be so shocking. What are the odds he'd be the only one in the world without a string? Surely they were more. 

And yet, while he's sitting across from someone who talks with so much enthusiasm, who laughs boisterously with Hunk, and teases Pidge with an ease that comes with years of friendship, it just doesn't make sense. Someone like him should have a soulmate. He’s not like Keith. There should be teal, or red, or the ever rare gold. 

But the world has never been fair, has it? 

Dwelling on it won’t make it any more bearable. 

At the end of dinner, Hunk and Lance say their goodbyes leaving only him and Pidge. 

"So..." Pidge starts. He knew that this was coming. Pidge doesn't push if Keith asks, but that won't stop her from asking the first time. "What was that all about? You were more spacey than I've ever seen you. And you can get pretty spacey," 

"It's nothing," Keith says. "You know how I get around people," 

"Fair enough," Pidge says. "But... I've almost never seen you that bad. Is it Lance? I know he can come on a little strong, but once you get used to his Lanceness, I promise he's a lot of fun to hang around," 

Keith knows that Pidge doesn't get along with everyone, and so he gets what she’s trying to say about Lance. It's too bad Keith wasn't paying that close attention to who Lance was as a person. He's just viewed him as mystery personified. Even knows that's pretty shitty. "No, he's fine," He sighs. "I just have a headache tonight. If I get invited out another time, I promise I'll be better," 

"Hah! Now you're definitely coming to game night. I've been waiting to kick your ass at Mario Kart Double Dash for 2 years now!" Pidge glares playfully. He smiles at her gratefully. It might be fun to have a game night. 

"Fine. But there's no way you're going to kick my ass," He teases.

"That's what you think," Pidge sticks their tongue out. "Did you want a ride?" 

"I'll die before I'm seen in Matt’s beetle," What do people see in those things anyway? They aren't that cute. But it isn't just that. Keith wants some time away from any sort of conversation that might arise. Even though he was mostly quiet during dinner, he's just not in the mood.

"Suit yourself. Have fun taking public transportation all the way back to your place. On the other side of town. Weirdo," Pidge then walks towards her brother’s waiting car. 

He’s fortunate enough that the bus stop is only a block away. Here, the bus comes about every twenty or so minutes, so he doesn’t even have to wait that long. The ride home, however. is a long one, and his iPod is swiftly running out of battery power. Even so, he can't bring himself to care. He's too engrossed in his own theories surrounding Lance McClain and his stringless fingers.

Has Keith noticed someone without a string before? Was he too busy looking down at the ground to notice someone else? 

He leans his head against the greasy window of the bus. Why is he getting so worked up, anyway? It's not like he's cared about an individual's string before. This is stupid. He's obsessing for no reason at all. Thinking about research is going to lead him to a dead end. 

Keith also knows himself too well. With a new question in mind, he won't stop until he's sure there's no path further on. As much as it pains him to admit, he _wants_ to understand the strings. Why, for example, there are people out there who simply don't belong anywhere?

Getting back to the apartment is otherwise uneventful. As he walks inside, he answers the barrage of questions Shiro tries to work into a normal conversation. Yes, he had a good time making friends. No, he's not hungry. Shiro worries too much about him. It's not like Keith hasn't been able to take care of himself for pretty much the past decade. Pointing this out to Shiro doesn't really do anything, so he guesses there's really no point. Whatever. 

He throws himself on top of his bed. It's been a long time since anything has fucked him up this bad. Where does he even start? Pidge would be a great help for research. She’s connected to a whole bunch of databases. But she'd get the wrong idea of why he was asking about the red string of fate. 

You know what? He thinks. That's a problem for tomorrow. Keith makes himself get back up to brush his teeth and change into pajama pants for once. Then he goes to sleep. 

Keith wakes up early in the morning to look through his boxes for that research he put together years ago. Even when he gave up on it, he couldn't bring himself to throw all his work out. 

It doesn't take too long. Keith doesn't have enough things for anything to be misplaced. He takes out his corkboard and hangs it up on the wall not too far from his desktop computer. 

Then, he starts to pin his slips of paper back up. Little snack bites of information that he tries to connect with other ones. There's not enough of them, and frankly, some of his theories are half baked. 

He knows that the red string of fate is something that a couple of cultures believe in. If not that, than something that connects two people to one another. So far, Keith hasn't really run into anything that also suggests platonic soulmates together, or polyamorous relationships. Which means that the ones who first came up with the idea either didn't like what they were seeing and chose to ignore those aspects of strings... or they just didn't see them in the first place. Or that particular person was ignored and people cherry picked. There are, as always, hundreds of variables. Thousands. 

Then there are those on internet forums who claim that they do see the strings. Immediately, Keith knows that they are completely and entirely full of bullshit. They describe something different from what he's seeing. Keith once thought that maybe there are those who can also see the strings- but their stories are often filled with holes. Dead end to dead end. 

But, it has been a few years. Maybe there are others who have popped up. Keith certainly won't share his own story, so he knows the odds of running into someone on the fucking internet like himself is slim to none. Still, he sits down to look anyway. His computer takes forever to boot up, but in the meantime, he makes himself a cup of coffee. He looks over his corkboard. No sudden revelations come to him while staring. The coffee drips. The computer comes to life. 

Once settled, Keith types into the search bar 'string of fate'. Thousands of results pop up. He knew this was coming but that doesn't make it any less annoying. Many of the articles he scrolls through look vaguely familiar. Plenty of them are ones he's read before. 

When he finds he's hitting a lot of the same dead ends he did years before, Keith starts looking for something else online. If he keeps going, he’s going to give himself another headache. Shiro has helped him learn that sometimes it’s better to step away from something, and to revisit it later with a clear mind.

He only works part time at Hunk's place. In his spare time, Keith likes to fix up old motorcycles and resell them for higher prices. He thinks it's fair. Besides, they're gonna be cheaper from him than a dealership. 

Someone in the neighborhood is actually selling theirs, so Keith writes down the address and decides that he can go take a look before he has to be at work today. If he's keeping busy, then he won't waste time thinking about things he can't change. 

Keith slips his old leather jacket on. The fall is in full swing. He likes the chill, though he's not quite used to it yet. Living on the west coast has spoiled him with the nice, warm weather. All that sand did get pretty boring, though. 

While stepping outside the apartment building, he eyes his cherry red bike. One day, he hopes he can ride it without having to worry about the constant distractions. 

After plugging in the address onto his phone, he notices that it's not too far away. Keith is pretty used to walking, so he decides to go with it. Pretty soon, the cold is going to be too much for anyone to enjoy the outdoors. He puts his headphones in and presses random. 

It takes only about 15 minutes for Keith to arrive to his destination. It's a nice two story blue house. The paint job is starting to look worn, but not in a way that looks bad. Just lived in. There's also a few toys littered about the lawn, which is otherwise kept pretty clean. Furthermore, there's a goddamn white fence running around the property. He scowls at the house before walking onto the porch to knock on the door. 

Suddenly, there's a dog that starts to bark from inside the house. Keith furrows his brow. Maybe this wasn't the best idea. Still, he waits with his arm crossed. 

"Ouch, shit-" He hears from the other side of the door. "Maria, move your-" The door opens. Lance is behind it. "Keith?" 

"Lance?" Keith looks at his map again. Unless he wrote the address down wrong, this is the place. It's just his luck that Lance lives here. "I saw an ad online..." Ugh, no matter what, he's not going to be able to say the right thing. Not with Lance's hand propped up against the door frame, stringless. 

"The motorcycle?" Lance grins. All the confusion swiftly disappears from his expression. "Shoulda known you'd be interested. You're covered in leather, dude," 

Keith looks down at himself. "Just the jacket?" Maybe the boots. But still. Covered is not the adjective he would use to describe himself. Disgruntled, maybe. 

Lance rolls his eyes, but he's still smiling so he guesses that he's not actually annoyed. "So you wanted to see the bike, right? C'mon, it's in the garage," Lance slips into his shoes next to the door, then leads him towards the side of the house. 

With a press of the button on a side panel, the garage door opens slowly. It creaks the entire way. Inside, Keith can already see an old sportbike. 

Underneath all the dust, Keith can see an excellent electric blue color. Plans to fix the bike up are forming in his mind, though he already knows they are premature. Usually bikes this old have _something_ wrong with it. 

He walks forward to inspect the bike a little closer, kneeling beside it. Keith runs his hand against the body. Yeah, he'd like to work on this bike. It'd be cool to have something other than research and work to do. 

"So yeah, this is my dad's old bike... my mom is making him get rid of it," Lance says. For a moment, Keith forgot he was there. Now he’s standing beside him. Being near someone so new usually makes Keith hyper aware of them. This is. Different. "Something about how he's grown out of his midlife crisis. And there's no way in heck she's gonna let any of us drive it,"

Keith looks up at Lance, considering his words. "How much is it? There wasn't any price listed on the site..."

"Oh, well that's mostly because, like I said, my mom is desperate to get rid of the thing," Lance pauses, then adds, "So it's free? You can take it today if you want. Drive it right out of here," 

Keith frowns and looks at the bike again. If only it were that easy. He can wait until the late evening, but that might be too late for the McClain family. Tuning out the strings will give him a headache, and he needs to be able to do that for work later on.

Seeming to sense his issues, Lance speaks up, "What were you hoping to do with it, anyway? Like, no offense to my dad but he didn't really do much in terms of upkeep," 

"Was gonna fix it," Keith replies. "It's kind of what I do," 

"Really? Cool!" Lance kneels down next to Keith. It's closer than he's usually comfortable with. He can't help but lean away a little bit. However, it doesn't seem to bother Lance at all. He's taking a closer look at the bike himself. "Can you show me?" 

"Huh?" 

"Show me how to fix it! You have no idea what it's like being friends with two geniuses. Well, maybe you know what it's like since apparently you knew Pidge beforehand," Lance rambles. "But if I can show them that I know how to do more than change a tire I'll feel, I dunno..." He makes a fist. "Vindicated," 

A moment passes. Then Keith snorts. He does kind of know what it's like to be surrounded by people he doesn't necessarily understand. But the point of starting this project was so that he didn't get overly obsessed with his _other_ project. And, by extension, Lance. Yet...

"I'm not much of a teacher..." Keith says. "But I can try to show you a few things. I guess," It would be nice to have a friend outside of Pidge and Shiro. So far, it looks like Lance and him have a few things in common. A few things that Lance himself doesn't even know about. That oddly makes him feel like he's on an equal playing field. 

If all that didn't do that, it's the way Lance lights up. "Seriously? Yes!" He pumps his fist in the air. "I'm gonna be a badass mechanic. Just you wait!" 

Keith shakes his head. He honestly has no idea what he's getting himself into. 

"Do you want to start now?" Lance asks. "My dad's got all sorts of tools here. He uh, also never really uses those," He rubs at the back of his head. 

"Now?"

"Yeah, why not? You working at Hunk's today?" He shifts his position so that he's sitting on the ground, with his legs stretched out before him. 

"Not 'till later," Still. They barely know each other and Lance is willing to spend a few afternoons with him fixing up an old bike. "You don't have anything to do today?"

"Not 'till later," Lance says in a higher pitched voice. Okay then. "But I get it if you don't want to stay here and work on the bike and then go to work to work on more cars or whatever. You can come on your day off! I'll make some milkshakes!" 

Keith raises a brow. Despite previous failed attempts at friendships, he finds himself getting enthusiastic about the idea. There's plenty of anxiety in the mix as well, but it's hard to deny the open expression painted in Lance's already bright eyes. "Okay. Yeah. My next day off is Saturday, so," He shrugs. 

"Yes!" Lance exclaims again. 

"I'm not sure that fixing up old bikes is exciting as you seem to think they are," 

"Huh? Oh yeah, well," Lance looks away for a moment, smiling to himself. "I need a new hobby and one just happens to fall into my lap. If that doesn't warrant excitement, I don't know what will," He stretches a little before standing up once more. 

Then, he offers Keith a hand. It takes a moment before Keith actually reaches up and takes it. He looks at their hands together. For once, his fingers feel a little less empty. Weird, but alright. He brushes his hands off on his pants once he's upright. 

"Oh, right, gimmie your phone," Lance says suddenly. 

"Why?" Keith reaches into his pocket anyway and turns it over to Lance. 

"Dude..." Lance looks down at the phone in his hand with confusion. "This looks like the very first iPhone. How old is this thing?" 

Keith can't help but bristle. "I don't need the latest smartphone. It gets the job done," He bites out.

"Whoa, okay, okay," Lance says quickly. "It's no problem. I just didn't think they even still sold these things," He taps on the screen a few times before handing it back to Keith. "Anyway, I just put my number in there. You can text me the details, or tell me if you need to cancel. Or, y'know, if you just want to talk about, uh, the weather..." 

"Thanks," Keith says. He's still a little peeved about the phone comment, but he gets that everything else Lance is doing is pretty cool. And it's not like Keith advertises how much money he _doesn't_ have. "Did you want mine?" 

Lance smiles widely. "Uh, yeah, definitely. Here, just shoot me a text now," 

Keith actually has to pull his phone back out of his pocket to do just that. He has no idea what to write, so he tries for something simple. 

Just a few seconds later, he hears the soft rumble from Lance's phone. He snorts when he reads the message. "’It's Keith’? Seriously?" Lance asks. “I know it’s you, I just asked you to text me!”

"What?" It's not that bad!" Keith argues. It got the point across.

"Nothing. Don't worry about it," Lance holds his phone up. "Say 'cheese!'" 

"What for?" A bright light goes off, making him cringe. "Did you seriously just take a picture? Delete it!" He reaches for the phone, but Lance is holding it high above his head like some twelve year old. Infuriatingly, Lance is just tall enough so that Keith can’t reach. He steps back, feeling indignant. 

"No way! However am I supposed to know that it's you who is texting me? I know a hundred Keiths! A thousand, even!" He replies with glee. Lance looks back down at his phone screen and starts typing. "There. Your contact info is all set up in my phone along with it's permanent, wonderful portrait. Really, I should be a photographer for a living," 

Keith groans. He doesn't care that much about the picture, but he'd prefer it if Lance deleted it. He'll probably get sick of it soon enough. 

"Okay. Well. I have to go start heading to Hunk's," He checks his phone to see when the next bus is, and Keith knows he's going to have to wait for like, 40 minutes. But he's kind of peopled out at the moment and would prefer some time to think alone, or at least listen to some music. 

"Sure thing dude," Lance shoves his hands into his pocket. He's got this looseness about him that Keith finds he envies. Shiro has told him more than once to loosen up, whereas Lance just seems to do it naturally. "Seriously, though, text me. Maybe give me some pre-class tips on how to fix bikes. That way I'll be prepared for our lesson." He smirks. 

"Okay," Keith says again. That's something he can do. "I'll see you around," 

Lance waves goodbye as Keith exits the garage. 

The further he gets from Lance's place, the more he wonders about their interaction. Lance only just met him the other day, and Keith wasn't exactly all there that night. He's never met someone as friendly and open as he was. 

Sitting at the bus stop, he looks down at his phone. He's not sure what to expect. A flurry of text messages, perhaps? He did seem kind of chatty. But no, it's his own stupid text staring back at him. Saying yes to fixing up the bike with Lance might have been a mistake.

No. No, he's thinking too hard about this. Lance is being friendly. And he wants to 'vindicate' himself to Hunk and Pidge. There's a good explanation for all this. Lance doesn't know about the strings, and doesn't know that the very knowledge of them has been slowly killing Keith for years. 

People hang out all the time. 

If he's really worried about it, he can ask Hunk. He's the one who knows Lance better anyway. It might quell some of the anxiety he's building. 

Until then, he's fine staring at the ground and turning the music up too loud. This is where he wants to be right now, he tells himself. 

-

After work, all Keith wants to do is take a shower. He's grimier than usual. Throwing himself into work usually helps him tune out the constant vibrating strings. It wasn't as successful today, but he's also not overthinking to a dangerous extent. Still, he's got a headache from all the concentrating on not concentrating. 

That's why when he opens to the door, he's dismayed to see that Shiro has company. As if Keith hasn't been introduced to a thousand people in the past few days. 

But this one is different, like Lance. This woman has a three golden threads attached to her pinky finger. One of which is attached to Shiro. 

Growing up alongside of Shiro for a portion of his childhood meant he always knew that Shiro had one. It just never occurred to him that he’d meet the person on the other end one day. Part of him never wanted to.

Something must attract outliers to this town. 

"Keith! This is Allura, a good friend of mine," Shiro says. He gestures for him to get a little closer. Keith reluctantly does so. He's distracted by the faint glow of their golden thread, and can’t help but follow it with his gaze for a moment. 

Then, Allura steps forward and holds out a hand. "Charmed," She says. 

Keith shakes her hand, then apologizes for being less than clean. He explains he started to work in Hunk's place a few weeks back.

"Yes, Shiro's told me all about you," She says warmly. The way she's eyeing him is making him uncomfortable. Like she knows something he doesn't. 

"Yeah, he does the same for you," He tells her in return. But in truth, he didn't really listen all that well. Shiro gets excited about many people. If he could, he'd brag about every person he's ever met, simply because every person has some good in them. As much as he loves Shiro, it can get a little nauseating. "You work in town right? Um... started your own business?" 

Allura smiles, clearly surprised. "Why, yes," She says. "I take it you haven't seen been?" 

Keith shakes his head. He's told her everything he knows about her. Shit, she probably knows way more about him. Shiro won't be too happy if he comes off as rude. 

Especially If they’re dating, or just about to. It's hard to tell though. What’s going on between them? Is it romantic? Platonic? Mysterious third option? He hasn't mentioned anything beyond friendship, and Keith is pretty sure this guy would have a hard time keeping his feelings a secret. 

"You should come. I think I might have things that you're interested in," 

"Allura has incense, crystals, tarot readings. It's really interesting stuff," Shiro explains. "She's pretty good at using her runes, too. It's impressive," 

Keith has never really believed in that kind of stuff before. He's not sure how rocks would help anyone's energy, and incense doesn't seem worth it. But he nods politely. 

"I'm sorry, but I've really got to shower," Keith says stiffly. The other two almost seem to expect his escape attempt. He goes to his bedroom first to get pick up a few articles of clothing. But first he writes down on a post-it "Gold Thread??" and pins it to his bulletin board. 

Maybe it’s because he’s known Shiro for such a long time, but he hasn’t looked into the gold threads as much as he should have. Now that there’s someone new in the mix, maybe Keith can get a better idea of what it means.

Then he finally retreats into the shower. The hot water begins to fall, and he lets all the tension go. Even though he can't concentrate hard enough to make the threads blur, he can close his eyes. There's no one in here to ask him questions, or make small talk. The steam clouds the bathroom, making his own sauna. He doesn't do this too often, knowing that the water bill can get unexpectedly high, and quite quickly. 

But today- today he needs this. 

-

When Keith was 15 he had his first crush. It was on a guy in class. Aaron, he thinks his name was. He was quiet and artistic. Very sure of himself. He had this great head of curly blonde hair.

One time, he drew Keith’s profile. He thought that no one even looked at him. Not because he was self conscious about the way he looked. History just tends to repeat itself. When Aaron slipped him that drawing during History class, he felt warm in a way he never had before. 

There was such detail. Somehow, he made Keith look soft. Was it vain to keep a portrait of himself? He wasn't sure, but he kept it anyway. 

After school one day, he pulled Aaron aside. The red of his string that went off somewhere east was distracting, but Keith ignored it. He ran his hand up along his arm, felt the goosebumps form under his fingers. Then he kissed him. He kissed Aaron. And Aaron was kissing him back. It felt like hours. It felt like time froze. Finally, he remembers thinking. This is what it's like. 

Closing his eyes made the experience all the more intoxicating. He could pretend. This was around the time he learned how to blur the strings. It was a good time.

It didn't last long.

"Do you want to come to my house?" Aaron asked one day. "My mom's making corned beef. It's pretty good," Keith could feel his hand shaking in his own. As if he could say no while holding hands. 

"If it's pretty good, I guess I have to come over," He said. 

Aaron had this small, shy smile that Keith liked. He kissed him again. 

That evening, Keith dressed to what he hoped was presentable. A black button down with his nicest jeans. Clean shoes. It was unclear to him why he was so nervous. By then, he and Aaron had spent almost 3 weeks together. Practically a lifetime. 

Entering the house, it did smell good. He met Aaron's younger brother, Arthur. They looked enough alike that Keith knew that Arthur was going to grow up handsome. He was a little annoying, but Aaron told him that it was his job as a little brother. It didn't make too much sense, but he went with it. 

Then, he met Aaron's parents. They were linked by a red thread. His father set the table while his mom was finishing up dinner. The two of them were laughing about something. And at the table, they included Keith in conversation. They fed him a pretty good meal. They held hands. The whole family just looked so damn happy. 

That was the night that Keith knew he was being selfish by dating Aaron. 

The next day, he did what he had to do.

"Wait, what?" Aaron's curly blonde hair was practically falling into his stupid blue eyes. Keith couldn't look at him. He hated seeing him look so upset and couldn't bear to see the red string connecting him to someone else. So instead, he focused his gaze down on the ground. "I thought you had fun. Was- was it my brother? Or my parents? I know they can be weird, but..." 

"No, it wasn't that..." Keith mumbled. "Look. I just can't. I'm sorry," He really did hate breaking up with him. 

Before the end of the school year, Keith transferred to another foster home, a new school, and away from his first crush. He vowed never to go through that again. It was clear to him where his place really was. Forgetting that will only make things worse. 

-

"Why do we need to drain the oil?" Lance asks. He's sitting close enough to Keith that he can feel his breath. It's distracting. He sighs. 

"How long has this bike been sitting here?" He slowly inches away from him, masking it by pretending to get a better look. 

"I dunno... six, seven years? It's been awhile," He admits. "My dad really only drove it around for about a year, y'know? And it wasn't on the highways, or outside of town. He told us he was a real badass, but he's just a giant dork," 

"Oh, I get it," Keith replies. 

"Get what?" 

"I just see where you get it from now," He's unable to keep a smile from his face. 

"Shut up," Lance pushes him lightly, nearly knocking him off balance. 

Keith made plans with Lance after work today, unable to think of a real reason to get out of it. But being here isn't as stressful as he thought it might be. Sitting next to Lance, for whatever reason, has made it easier to tune the strings out. He's able to focus mostly on the job at hand. 

Until Lance cracks an exceedingly stupid joke. Keith promises himself that he won't laugh at a single one. Though if he does smile, who can blame him? 

Lance is a nice guy. 

"Six or seven years is just enough for the oil to go bad," Keith finally explains. "So I'm gonna need to go out and get more. I want to drain it, first. Might need new tires, as well..." He presses his thumb to the front tire and pushes down. "It needs more air, at the very least," 

"But it was just sitting around," Lance points out. “I didn't think it'd really need that many repairs," 

"I can still take it back to the garage if you don't want-" 

"No, no!" Lance cuts him off pretty quickly. It makes Keith blink. "No, that's not it. Uh, I guess I was expecting easy stuff? Beginner type stuff? Motorcycles for dummies?"

Keith shakes his head. "Any machine just sitting around can go bad. Things inside can rust. Oil, gas, that kind of thing can expire. It also depends on the climate, where you're keeping the bike..." He rattles off. 

"Wow, you know a lot," Lance smiles at him. 

"This is just stuff you can learn from googling 'old motorcycle problems," He watches Lance's smile fall, though he can't imagine what he said was wrong. "And by the time we're finished you'll have more than basic knowledge on motorcycle care," 

The smile comes back, though not as strong as it was before. Keith frowns a little. He doesn't always understand where Lance is coming from. Sussing out what makes him happy has been challenging. The relief that Lance gives him almost makes him feel like he's in debt somehow. How does he pay someone back when the other person doesn't even know they've given so much? 

"If you say so, Captain," 

"What?" 

"Well, you're in charge, so you know. Captain," He gives Keith a mock salute. It's ridiculous enough to make Keith laugh. Damn it. That one caught him by surprise. He forces his expression into something more neutral.

"Whatever makes you happy," He replies dryly. "Do you have the keys, still?" 

Lance reaches into his pockets and pulls out a small set of keys. There's a rabbit's foot attached to the keychain. He tosses the keychain to Keith, which he catches easily. 

After pushing himself up, Keith starts the engine. "Mmm. Might need a new battery, too," 

"Can't we do the thingy?" Lance asks. He's standing next to Keith, looking over his shoulder at the dials on the dashboard. "The one with the wires from one engine to another?" 

"We can try. The battery's old enough that it's going to need a new battery soon anyway. But we can save a few bucks doing the 'thingy'," It’s not something he would recommend an ameteur do, but it’s easier and cheaper than getting a new battery.

"Saving money is always a plus. Oh, and I don't really know how to do the thingy," Lance says. 

"You are talking about jumping a car, right? I just want to make sure," Keith doesn't have any jumper cables on him, but he's sure that the McClain family must have something lying around. 

"Yeah. The thingy," Lance reiterates. He's got this shit eating grin on his face. Really, the only thing Keith can do is roll his eyes in response. "Well, we can stop by the car place. Not the garage, the one that sells all the car stuff," 

"I'm glad that you're picking up technical terms so quickly," 

"Shut up. Anyway, why don't you make a list of things we might need. We can go check out the store, compare prices and junk to the stuff they have online. And uh, maybe we can pick up something to eat?" Lance says that last part pretty quickly. 

Keith thinks about it for the moment. He didn't exactly rush here after work, but he is hungry. "Yeah, alright," He says. "Give me a few minutes to write up a list. I can show you what we need," 

That appears to have been the right thing to say, as Lance finally grins the way Keith was hoping to see him grin. He mirrors the look. Then, Lance sits next to him, and they finish up making a list of stuff and things that they're going to need to fix up the bike. 

-

After they had gone to the store, they end up at some fast food joint that's clearly stuck in the 1950s. 

"But that's the point! It's nostalgic!" Lance says, waving a fry around like a baton. 

"You weren't alive during the 50s..." Keith counters. He steals the fry from Lance's loose grip and shoves the entire thing in his mouth. The fries here are pretty good, but he doubts that this is one of those places he's going to come back to. McDonald's works just fine for him. 

"Yeah, no shit!" Lance, annoyed that Keith stole a fry from him decides to retaliate by stealing one of _his_ fries. Outrageous. "The real fifties sucked ass. Y'know, racism, homophobia. Probably more bullshit that no one wants to think about. But the aesthetic, dude. The aesthetic! It's adorable," He sighs happily while stealing another fry. 

"You come here just because it fits your nostalgic aesthetic?" The headache from over exerting himself is starting to form. Even with Lance here, he knows that it's only a matter of time before he sees the strings again. After the day he's been having, he almost doesn't care. 

Lance nods enthusiastically. "Milkshakes, dude! And roller blades, and those big skirts and hot guys with leather jackets! You have to admit this is fun."

Keith suddenly feels warm under his own leather jacket. He's probably not what Lance meant, anyway. 

"Plus," Lance says. "As you can already tell, this place has like, the second best fries in town. It's not the cheapest, but it is a good place to go when you need to get away from the harsh realities of life," 

"The harsh realities, huh?" Keith says with a raised brow. 

"Well, yeah. Midterms are coming up," He says as if Keith should know better. 

"You're in school?" Now that he thinks about it, Hunk did mention something about Lance in university. Beyond that, Keith doesn't know that much about Lance. They've spent a few hours together. He should know this stuff by now. 

"Yeah, dude," Lance is smiling. "I'm studying astronomy. Let me tell you though, studying the stars involved more math than I ever imagined. It's kind of bullshit, but it's also kind of worth it. Does that make sense?" 

Keith shrugs. He imagines Lance in one of those big domed buildings, the ones with the huge telescopes sticking out of them. What would he find up there, among the stars? "What do you want to do with that degree?" 

"Weeeell... I'm kind of hoping to be an astronaut. Lame, right?" 

Keith shakes his head. "No, that's... kind of cool," He'd be lying if he said he never wanted to see the stars for himself. Any form of traveling appeals to him. In one moment, he's both jealous and impressed that Lance has set such a high goal for himself. 

"Yeah, right?" Lance says. "I mean, I know there are plans to go to Mars and stuff. Even colonize. If it's possible though, I just want to do a visit. Study the environment? I don't think I could actually make a permanent move to Mars. I'd miss Earth too much," He laughs a little. "You don't get fifties memorabilia restaurants up on the big red planet. But anyway. If that doesn't work out I think I'd try to work in a planetarium? They still have all the gadgets and stuff. Just no space travel," 

He hopes that it never comes to the planetarium. Lance should get to travel to space. Keith bets they need someone as passionate as him. From what he's read, people don't give as much of a shit about space as they used to. Lance would be the perfect person to get the world enthusiastic about the unknown. "So what's the actual process? Of getting into Nasa." 

Lance is more than happy to tell him all about it, and goes through the long process of what it takes to even be considered to become an astronaut. 

Before he knows it, the waitress comes by with a milkshake and sets it between them. Then, two straws. 

"Wh- we didn't order this," Keith says. 

" _We_ didn't. _I_ did," Lance smirks. He jabs his straw against the table a few times to remove the wrapper before sticking it in the milkshake. "I figured if you never been to one of these places, you've never had a milkshake. Or at least, a halfway decent milkshake. I mean, mine are still better and I still owe you one but. We’re here. Might as well, right?” 

Keith can't believe he ordered this, doesn't even know when he went ahead and did that. Lance has been stupidly nice to him since he met him. He studies Lance's hands again. There's still no string there. One won't just appear because he expects it to. As far as he knows, the strings of fate don't work like that. 

But it scares the shit out of him that he cares so much if Lance has a string or not. He knows where this road leads. And what does he do despite his history? Despite what he knows to be true? He's turned towards this path, taking one step after another. Getting to know Lance, deciding to fix up a bike with him, now he's out at some kitschy restaurant. 

That is, if Lance even liked him. He’s panicking over nothing again. This is just a pair of guys hanging out.

Then Lance leans in, sucking down the milkshake. He's sends a quick wink his way. 

Before he knows it, he's leaning in too. The milkshake is perfectly mediocre, but he doesn't give a shit. He's already committed to giving this thing a go. 

Lance has this goofy grin on his face when he finally pulls away from the red and white bendy straw. "It's the best, right?" 

"I think I could get used to it, yeah," He replies. 

And that, to him, is the scariest part. 

-

Living with Shiro on cheap rent means that occasionally, he’ll ask Keith for a favor. It’s always kind of out of his way, but not enough for him to complain about it. Truthfully, he knows that he’s getting the better end of the deal. 

Which is why he’s on his way to Allura’s shop in town. He has to take a different bus from work, so he knows he’ll be walking the rest of the way. 

Allura’s ‘Notions and Potions’ is a hole in the wall shop in what looks like a street filled with equally odd stores. From what he’s heard, Altea frequently makes America’s top 10 quaintest town’ lists. This is probably one of those touristy streets that really brings in the money. 

He can’t wait to leave.

The bell above the door chimes as he walks in. There’s a sign that’s right next to the welcome mat: PLEASE NO PICTURES. This prompts him to take a closer look around him. The store is cramped, filled to the brim with crystals, books, incense, and tarot cards. But no Allura. 

Keith takes a step in, kind of glad that no one else is in here. He’s not really in the mood to make small talk, or share knowing looks with strangers. Instead, he heads towards the books. 

He runs his fingers over the spines. All of them seem to relate to spiritual stuff. Keith doubts he’ll ever understand, nor does he particularly want to. It is cool enough to hold his interest while he waits for Allura.

Until he sees a book on the red string of fate. One that he’s never seen before. He pulls the book from the shelf and opens it to the table of contents. Keith has read so much on the subject that he’s shocked that there’s a book out there he hasn’t even heard of. Even the author’s name alludes him. 

After just a few minutes of looking through the book, he knows that the person who wrote it is only working on speculation. It’s disappointing, but not surprising. When he closes the book, he sees Allura standing right beside him. He nearly jumps out of his skin. 

“Enjoying yourself?” She asks. Like before, Allura is wearing a silky, flowy top, though this time it’s a light purple. She’s also got on dark jeans and black boots. There are crystals both pink and white hanging from her neck. It’s like she’s a part of her store, Keith thinks. 

He shrugs in response. “It’s a cool place here. Smells nice,” 

“I see you’re interested in soulmates. Are you seeing someone? Shiro didn’t mention that you were,” She’s got the same disconcertingly knowing smile on her face that she did back at the apartment. 

Lance suddenly comes to mind. They’ve been spending a lot of time together but- no. Keith is not going there. So he shakes his head. “No, just… looking around. Shiro said you forgot your-”

“I know what you are, Keith,” Allura says suddenly, leaning into his space. He leans back and nearly drops the book. 

“What.” 

“I mean, I don’t know the word for it, exactly, but I know you can see them! The first thing you looked at when you saw me were my fingers. You saw the strings, didn’t you?” Allura is blurting this all out so quickly that it shatters the illusion of her poise for him. Keeping a secret is apparently painful for her. On the other hand,

“You… you see them too?” 

She claps her hands together. “I knew it. Wonderful! Come to my back office? It’ll be a little more… private,” Allura doesn’t wait for an answers. Instead, she just grabs his collar and drags him to the back room. Underneath that silk top is some apparently serious muscle.

Like the store, her office is small. There are plenty of books and mystical looking pictures, but it looks more personal than what’s going on out front.

Allura sits at her desk, then props her head against her hands. She looks far too excited to talk about this. 

Then again, Keith has been dying for an opportunity like this. Years of research, and he's never come close to someone who actually knows anything about the strings. 

"Are you going to tell me what's going on now?" He asks when she takes just a moment too long. 

"Oh. Right, yes. The strings. You can see them. I know, because I could once," She sighs, then looks down at her own fingers. "I suspect you can't see your own?" 

"Yeah. Wait, you mean you couldn't see...?" He looks down at her hands. There are clearly three golden strings stretching out through the wall and into town. "Then how did you even know you had one?" 

Wait. Does that mean-

"As I’ve tried to tell you... I can no longer see them. So, I'm sorry to tell you I have no idea whether you have them." 

Right. No. Of course. He tries to swallow the bitterness down. Just because he met someone like himself doesn't mean anything changes. Not really. "How did you even know you had them, then?" He asks. 

"I met another, a few years back," She says with a sigh. "He was... not a kind person. It took me a while to figure out that he could see them at all. He didn't seem to care whether a person had the strings or not," Allura explains. 

Whoever this guy was, he took this ability differently than himself. 

"When I confronted him, he confided in me. Told me about his own thoughts and feelings about the strings. I couldn't believe that he would choose to ignore them. He had no respect for how people were tied together," She runs her fingers over where her strings were, though Keith knew that it was impossible to feel anything there. He's checked. "But he did tell me that I had strings of my own. And he told me that he did not. I assumed there was a correlation. So far, it looks as if that’s true," 

Keith sighs. That's valuable information. More to add to his conspiracy board. 

"Do you know what the gold one means?" He points to her hand. 

She shakes her head. "I believe the gold threads are from those who once saw the strings themselves. I can't confirm anything, however," Allura pushes a silver strand of hair behind her ear. "There's much that we don't know, I'm afraid. But I will tell you everything that I do," 

That's comforting, he thinks. He's wondered if he was the only one out there. But it does beg the question: "Why us? I wasn't born with this. Just..."

"One morning, you woke up and saw the world differently?" She smiles sadly. "Yes, the same happened for me. There was... an accident. The day before I saw the strings there was a fire. My mother and father were trapped inside the house, and well..." Allura lets out a shuddering breath. "I lost everything that day. 

“My uncle, Coran took me in. He cared for me. But I was angry. I remember thinking, if this is what love is, if it means that I risk all this heartbreak, then I want nothing to do with it," She's not even looking at him anymore. Just down at her desk, with her hands clasped. "The next morning, I saw the strings. I'm sure that you understand what that was like," 

Keith doesn't say anything. He's learned that saying you're sorry doesn't fix anything, doesn't ease the hurt or the anger. His story wasn't as drastic. He was alone from the beginning. 

"It was all consuming. You know. If I concentrate hard enough, they would fade, just for a few minutes. But it made my life more difficult. It made me angrier," 

"You don't have to do this," He offers somewhat reluctantly. It must be hard to go over this. There are some things that Keith doesn't feel comfortable talking about. Even if it's for his benefit to learn, he doesn't want her to suffer through her worst memories.

"No, it's... you should know. Anything might be able to help you," She still isn't looking at him. It takes a moment for her to compose herself. A few deep breaths, sitting up straight again. "Many years passed like this. I'd given up on having a normal life. I was bitter, but if I had an ability like this, perhaps I could point them in the right direction. Some listened, some did not. As I had no concrete evidence of an ability, they had no reason to listen,"

Playing cupid sounds tedious. Annoying. He knows he doesn't have the patience for something like that. A newfound respect for her roots itself in his mind. 

"I met Shiro. I saw that he didn't have a string of his own. The first person I had ever seen without one. I avoided him. I felt as if I had somehow failed him already," She smiles wistfully. "But he didn't stay away. I don't know how, but he noticed I was struggling internally. He took me out for coffee. Just to talk. I couldn't tell him anything. About my own issues, or about what I knew of him. And yet... I was drawn to him. We swiftly became best friends," 

"Yeah," Keith agrees. "Shiro's like that," 

"Indeed. After the fire, I couldn't hold onto any real friendships. All that time, wasted. But with Shiro, we had a connection. Was it real? Was it fair? Was I somehow taking advantage of him?" Allura shakes her head. "I realized I was torturing myself. Whether or not Shiro was my soulmate or not didn't matter. He was a true friend. My doubts were putting our relationship in danger. So I stopped worrying about it," 

"Wh- that's it? You just stopped worrying?" He asks.

"It's oversimplified, I suppose, but it's the truth," She insists. "It took a few weeks for me to truly move past it. But one night I woke up and... The strings were gone. I couldn't see them anymore," 

Keith shakes his head. That's can't be it. There's no solution. No answer. He can't just stop thinking about the goddamn strings when they're all he can _see_. "There has to be something I'm missing. Or you didn't tell the story right," 

"I understand your frustrations, Keith, but that's all there is," She says. "I can tell you about the other young man I met with your abilities, but he didn't provide any new information," 

"I want to hear about it," Maybe Keith can find him. Compare notes. Something. Anything. Now that he knows that there are answers out there, he can't just sit here. He can't just come to terms with it. "How'd you meet him? What did he say?" 

"I-I, I met him at a party. Coran knew his father. We were invited to spend Christmas Eve with them," She explains. "But he wasn't kind. I suspect part of the problem was that he became too jaded. He didn't care whether or not the people he slept with had strings or not, so long as he was happy," 

Wow, what a douche. 

"I wanted to talk more, but he left early that evening to, ah, meet someone else. Honestly, Keith, there's nothing more. I would tell you if there was," She says sincerely. 

The worst part is that Keith knows that it's the truth. He finally meets someone like himself and there's still no real answer to his problem. All the research he did led to nothing. 

He hands her the sweater she left at Shiro's apartment. 

"I've got to go. It was nice seeing you, Allura," Keith stands up and exits the office. 

"Wait, Keith!" Keith can hear her office chair rolling against the hardwood floor. "If you ever need to talk... you know where to find me," 

He waves goodbye. This isn't something he wants to discuss any further. 

-

While on the bus, Keith can't help but think of Allura's story. How she stopped worrying about the strings and was set free. Now she has a boyfriend, a girlfriend, and Shiro as her best friend and confidant. He scoffs. As if it's that easy. 

He's wanted nothing more than to forget about them and move on. Knowing what she went through does help with feeling singled out, but that doesn't give him the answer. 

Lance comes to mind. Relying on him to resolve this life long issue is unfair as well as unrealistic. 

It's great that it worked out for Allura. He's happy for her, really. But the odds that Lance is somehow the one to make him realize that he doesn't have to be his soulmate are slim. 

It's infuriating to know that there is some sort of cure out there, but it's based on some emotional breakthrough. Why couldn't there be a challenge, or a quest? 

Is this a punishment of some sort? 

Keith runs his thumb over his knuckles. What happened today was a good thing, he's just getting emotional about it by thinking too much. There's more information than ever before. And a light at the end of the tunnel if he thinks about it. 

So why does he still feel like shit? 

-

It's been awhile since Keith has hung out with anyone besides Lance. They’ve been working on the bike for almost a month now. 

So Keith decides to spend a long, uneventful, unproductive day with Pidge. After that whole thing with Allura, he kind of needs a day to tune out and just... relax a little. 

So they're both sitting on the floor in sweat pants and playing a Mario Kart on gamecube. Keith is winning this round, but he and Pidge are pretty evenly matched when it comes to this game. Maybe that's why they keep coming back to Mario Kart. 

"Don't you dare," Keith snarls. But Pidge releases the cursed blue shell, blowing him up and effectively leaving him in second place. She's laughing like a demon. She probably is a demon. 

"That's what you get you motherf-" She hisses as she turns a tight corner, as if she hasn't played this game and mastered turns like that a decade ago. 

"I'm coming after you Holt," He vows. In a matter of minutes, he comes out on top, claiming victory. When Keith turns to her, he has a smirk on his face so smug that she throws a kernel of popcorn at his head. It only makes him laugh. 

"I've missed this," Pidge admits. "I feel like I haven't seen you in a few weeks. What've you been up to?" 

Keith shrugs. He kind of just wants to go back to playing the game and kicking her ass. "Been fixing up a bike. With Lance," 

"I still can’t believe you’ve been hanging out with _Lance_ ," Pidge says incredulously. "After that dinner at Friday’s where you were all spaced out, I figured you kinda just let that go. Mostly because he was acting uh... well, like himself," 

"What's that supposed to mean?" 

"You were barely there, you know? Spaced out and-"

"No, I meant what you said about Lance," Keith's frowning. He can't remember that much about what was being said that night or whatever, but to him, Lance seemed normal. In fact, he wishes he didn’t freak out so badly so he could’ve gotten to know him better sooner.

Pidge holds her hands up. "Whoa, nothing. I just didn't think you guys would get along. Sometimes Lance can get a little competitive, or flirty, or sometimes he tells the worst jokes in the world. From what I know about you, and I know a _lot_ , those types tend to turn you off. You avoid people like him altogether," 

Keith shakes his head. He's pretty sure he's never met anyone like Lance before. And okay, they did have a milkshake competition and both of them got brain freezes because of it, but it wasn't anything that bad. "He’s... " Keith doesn’t know what to say. “Different.”

"And that's fine," Pidge says with a small smile. "It's really cool that you guys get along," She presses start and a new level begins. It's the rainbow road, of course. She's better at it than he is. 

Keith leans forward. He's holding his controller a little too tightly. It would be so satisfying to beat Pidge at her own level, he thinks. 

"Lance talks about you all the time now, you know," She mentions when he's in the lead by a hair. 

He somehow doesn't fumble. "Yeah?" Keith shouldn't have asked. It's better not to get too deep into it. Pidge is probably just trying to distract him. And besides, he doesn't want to know what Lance may or may not say about him. He's been down that road before. 

"Yup. He talks about how you guys are fixing up that old as fuck bike in his garage. How you're teaching him how to be a genius mechanic," She tells him. Pidge leans into him while making one of the sharp turns. It's hilarious and vindicating to see her fall off the track altogether. Looks like she's the one off her game tonight. 

"I'm just teaching him some basics," Wow, he might actually manage to win this one. Jumping to conclusions is dangerous, especially with someone as dangerous and ruthless and Pidge Holt. 

"Yeah, but. It means a lot to him," Anxiously, he watches as she hits one of the item boxes. It's another goddamn blue shell. She's cackling beside him. And she's not even throwing it yet. She's going to wait until he's completely on edge. Incredible. "Anyway... I guess I just want to ask what your intentions are," 

"My _intentions_?" Wherever this conversation is heading, it's not good. He almost wants to hand over his controller if it means getting out of this conversation. She's cornered him, the bitch. 

"You know. Like... do you like him? Do you _like_ like him?" 

He waits for the teasing. Further prodding. But it doesn't come. He sighs. That'd almost be better than the sincerity. 

"Hey. I know you get weird about stuff. About being around people. Believe me, you've run away enough for me to get the picture," Pidge still doesn't throw the damn shell. It's bothering the shit out of him. "But I think you and Lance might be good together, I guess? I mean, definitely disgusting," She gags a little. "But you've seemed happier. I mean, when I actually get to see you," 

Keith smiles shakily. 

"You don't have to answer. You should think about it though. Don't hold yourself back because you're scared of what _might_ happen before you even try," She throws the fucking shell and he fucking blows up. 

"I'm not _scared_ ," He growls. It's too much, and he knows it is. Keith shakes his head, mad at himself for being like this. He's known Pidge for too long. Even after all these years, she hasn't pulled the punches. "Sorry," Keith admits. "I'll think about it, okay?" 

The game is over. They both shamefully lost to some computer character. It's been a long time since that happened. 

Pidge pats him on the knee. "Good. It'd be nice to see you happy. I mean, happier. Not that being in a relationship determines whether or not you're happy but... Oh, you know what I mean," With two teal strings attached to her finger, Keith is happy she knows that. She's never really expressed interest in anyone romantically, however. Pidge will be fine, he knows, and he finds comfort in that. "Shut up. I'm going to make some popcorn," 

Keith nods, and leans back against the couch. Coming here has been a good escape for him. He should visit more often. It's nice to just chill and play games with her. 

It'd be nice to invite Lance one of these times, too. Along with Hunk, since he and Pidge are soulmates. Shiro, Allura, and Matt could all be here. Weirdly enough, they're becoming something resembling an extended family. 

-

"You know, after this, you have a responsibility to teach me how to ride?" Lance tells him a few days later. He's got grease all over his hands, but he's not once touched his face. Something about being on a strict routine. 

"That so?" Keith holds his hand out.

"Uh doy," Lance hands Keith a wrench. "I've got to know how to. What's the point of knowing how to fix something and not be able to enjoy the thing I fixed?"

Keith shakes his head. "I don't know," 

"So? Teach me?" Lance nudges him with his elbow. "C'mon, it'll be fun! You can give me one of your, I presume, thousands of leather jackets, and a helmet. I bet it's like riding a bike!" 

"You're ridiculous," He sits up and wipes the sweat off his forehead. 

“That doesn’t make me any less right!” Lance seems to deflate. “But uh, I get it if you’re busy. Not everyone can handle me all the time,” 

Keith frowns. Is that the vibe he’s been giving off? 

“I don’t really ride except at night. After everything is closed,” He says after a beat.

"What, like Ghost Rider? Nicolas Cage?" Lance laughs a little bit. He hands Keith a bottle of water that was nearby. How well prepared is he? 

"I've never seen that movie, but I can without a doubt say it's nothing like that," He drinks down about a quarter of the water. "There's less distractions," He shrugs. Without any other underlying cause, he feels kind of stupid admitting it. 

Lance nods though. "Alright, I can get that," He takes the water bottle back and picks up one of the wrenches off the floor. 

"Yeah?" 

Again, Lance nods. "I don't know if you've noticed, but I've got ADHD. Like, diagnosed and everything," He laughs a little, but it's not like how he normally sounds when he laughs. "So, you know. I sometimes have to take classes over again. It sucks, but hey! I get drugs," 

Wow. He feels like an asshole. Keith knows that there are people out there who have their own issues. Shiro, obviously. But Lance always just seemed pretty happy. Which brings him back to the 'asshole' thing. Keith doesn't advertise what he's thinking, or what he's going through all the time. So why should Lance? 

"Aw, c'mon, don't be like that now," Lance says quietly. "You were just about to promise that you were going to teach me night motorcycle riding," He hits Keith's knee with the wrench he's holding, just enough to pull him out of his thoughts. 

"Oh, is that what I was going to do?" He can't help but smirk. It soon transforms into a more genuine smile when he sees the sheer relief of Lance's face. 

"Yeah? So? Woo me with your ways of the motorcycle," He crosses his arms and leans back against the wall, waiting for an invitation. 

Keith rolls his eyes. "Fine. I'll teach you. There's an open area nearby we can go to. Does your dad have a helmet, a windbreaker? Stuff like that?" 

"Uh...." Lance scratches the back of his head. "Probably? Deep in his closet most likely. Unlike me. Hah! High five for that one, am I right?" He holds his hand up in the air, but Keith will not indulge that stupid joke. "You get it? Because I'm bisexual? Don't leave me hanging," 

"I'm definitely leaving you hanging," Keith pushes him over. Lance laughs and somehow complains about it all at the same time. "How about this Saturday?" 

"You mean for..." Lance raises a brow, looking more playful than confused. 

The look should be more annoying than anything else, but it makes Keith smile. 

"I'll teach you the basics. It's not actually that hard," It'll be nice to ride his bike again. He's been so busy at work, fixing up this bike, and hanging out with Lance more often than not. 

"Great! It's a date," Lance freezes. "I mean, not a date-date. Just a plan for two people in the middle of the night. Teaching each other cool stuff. Yup. Not a date," 

Keith stares at Lance. He has no idea what goes on through that guy's mind sometimes. "Right. So, I'll text you, and we can figure it out from there." 

-

Shiro sits down at the tiny table across from him. They're eating leftover Chinese food. Since neither of them know how to cook, most nights are spent like this. It's grown comfortable over these past couple of weeks. 

"Suzanne is doing well in her training this week," Shiro mentions his clients from time to time. He probably gets far too attached to them, but Keith doubts that Shiro is even capable of talking to someone without growing some sort of fondness for them. It sounds exhausting. And Shiro already works as a personal trainer. "I think she's planning on taking over the world though..." 

Keith snorts. 

"Anyway, tell me about your day? Anything interesting happen?"

Keith shrugs. "Not really," It was another day at work. Most of the cars that came in were easy fixes, which made them boring. He's looking forward to more of a challenge, but those usually go to Hunk anyway. "Oh, but I'm not going to be here Saturday night. Not for a while, I mean," 

Shiro stops eating for a moment. "You've got plans?" 

"Yeah. Just... gonna show Lance how to ride a motorcycle. It's no big deal," He feels himself flush a little under the scrutiny. 

"Oh, and you only ride at night. Okay," He pushes some spare ribs around on his plate. "Just with Lance, then?"

Keith nods his head. "Yup." 

Shiro nods as well. "Are you gonna bring anything to eat? Eat at his place first? Maybe go out in town? I heard you guys like that '50s place..." 

"I don't know. I haven't thought about it that much," Keith thinks that maybe he should have just kept his mouth shut. Or even lied. The problem is, he's never really been able to lie to Shiro. He's a terrible liar in the first place, and he feels like shit when when he lies to him. Even when he can see right through him. 

"Do you want to do anything besides teach him?" 

Keith doesn't understand why he has to do more. It's not that complicated. Teach Lance to ride a motorcycle. Everything else will figure itself out. He resists the urge to roll his eyes. "We'll see. Lance doesn't always plan things out either," Which is another reason he likes to hang out with him. 

More than once while working on the bike, Lance has suggested they go do something. And then they did. There wasn't too much thought to it. Sure, they've ended up at the stupid '50s restaurant about three times, but they've also gone to the movies and had a ridiculous adventure in target that he’s not sure he’s allowed to speak about yet. 

So doing something else with Lance is not really out of the question. He likes hanging out with him. Pidge’s words hang over him. He promised to think about what she said, figure out how he feels about Lance. It’s not that easy, though. Any time he tries, he gets anxious, worrying about what Lance thinks of him. He likes what the two of them have. Losing it would be… well. Bad. If they did start dating, that doesn’t mean that they won’t eventually break up. Where would that leave him then? 

He stares at his hand gripping the knife. His knuckles had gone white just thinking about the topic. And yet his hand still feels empty. Keith hates himself for noticing. 

-

All of Saturday, Keith didn't concentrate at all on making the strings fade. He's never really tried to conserve his energy like this before, and there's no guarantee that it'll work in his favor, but he's more than willing to try. Tonight is something he's been looking forward to all week. For once, he doesn't want the strings to get in the way of what he enjoys. 

"Oh, hey dude," Hunk says while he's in the middle of tuning an engine up. "I heard you and Lance are going out tonight. I made some cupcakes for you guys. It's Lance's favorite. Oh, and you haven't had them yet so I figured you should at the very least get to try them," 

Keith smiles cautiously. "Thanks," He says. "You didn't have to do that," 

Hunk shrugs. "Yeah, but I wanted to. You're kinda stuck with us now, that means I get to feed you whenever I want. It also means I will subject you to taste tests. But also you've got to beat people up who scare me because Shiro refuses to do that and you're now the scariest person I know,"

"Sounds like a fair trade," Keith agrees. 

"Come by the office before you leave, I've got a whole box. And remember to take your lunch break!" Hunk crosses his arms and stares him down, as if he isn't already his boss. 

"You got it," Keith turns back to his work. He can't believe he's been tricked into joining some friend group. It's what Shiro always wanted for him. It's not so bad. He's not about to admit that to Shiro, however. 

The rest of the day Keith tries to just focus on his work. He doesn't want to get himself too excited. After all, it really is just him teaching Lance how to ride a bike. Like he told Shiro, it's not big deal. 

Then again, Pidge's words continue to ring through his mind. Does he like Lance? 

He's been avoiding the answer to that question since that night a few days ago. It seems like a good idea to avoid that question a little longer. Let them just have a normal night without having to worry about whether or not they like each other. 

In that respect, he's somewhat successful. About halfway through his shift, he's able to zone in on what he's doing and get the work done. To be fair, while he's working on one of the cars, he thinks about if Lance would like to learn about this. To further his education as a mechanic. 

He smiles at the thought of Lance leaning over a hood of a car. It turns out that Lance hates getting his hands dirty. Keith didn't catch on until the fourth time he can over when he used disinfectant about 3 times in thirty minutes. When he figured it out, he cracked up. He asked Lance if it was worth it to learn all this stuff just to get back at Pidge and Hunk for using their genius on him all these years. 

Wait, shit. 

There's plenty of time to talk to Lance later. He doesn't have a problem. 

He may have a slight problem. 

Later on, Keith picks up the cupcakes from Hunk. 

"Did you want a ride home, dude?" Hunk asks. "I'm on my break," 

Keith thinks about it for a moment. In truth, waiting around for the bus while he still has all this grease on him is not pleasant. "Yeah," He says. "Why not?" 

Hunk grins, then gets up from his office chair to bring Keith into the parking lot. 

Surprisingly, Hunk doesn't bring up tonight again. Instead, he talks about this small Halloween party. "There's gonna be costumes, a bunch of candy, and definitely bobbing for apples. Have you ever bobbed, Keith?" 

"I, uh, can't say I have?" Keith hasn't been to a Halloween party besides the ones that the schools he went to used to enforce on their students. But it might be fun, he guesses. He'll go without a costume, but he'll go. 

"Great! It'll be fun to watch. Oh, and you know the rest of the crew is coming. It's been forever since we've all been in one room," Hunk sighs happily. "I'll have to make that KitKat cake I saw online. Finally, the perfect excuse," 

Keith has a good idea who the rest of the crew is, but he can't help but ask: "Anyone besides the usual?" 

"Nah. Big parties aren't as fun to plan, and even less fun to clean up. Don't worry, dude," He reassures him. Then pats Keith on the shoulder. "I know you don't like big crowds," He's not sure he likes that he's become so transparent in the past few weeks. "Alright, here you are. Have fun tonight. Oh, don't forget the cupcakes!" 

-

As it starts to get darker outside, Keith becomes more and more nervous. He's showered, put on his go to outfit, and anxiously awaits for the moon to rise. Still, he doesn't concentrate on making the strings fade from his sight. He doesn't want anything to do with them tonight. 

By now, he's grown tired of them dictating his life. Not just that he can't always drive, or that he sometimes flinches when one goes right through him. 

No. 

He's tired of them dictating who he has relationships with. What does it matter if someone is his soulmate or not? Pidge is friends with Shiro, and he's not her soulmate. Same goes for Hunk and Lance. They're all good friends. Some of them, by chance, are meant to be together. And some of them want to be together even if they aren’t the perfect fit. So he wants to keep that in mind tonight when he goes out with Lance. 

Keith takes a deep breath, then grabs his keys to head out of his apartment. This is something people do everyday. 

On the way to Lance's place, it's easy to make the strings fade out of sight. He supposes that not doing it all day has helped. Next time he wants to do something like this, he'll have to remember. 

Lance is already on the front step of his house, waiting for him. He's got this jacket that looks like it was made in the 1980's with a helmet to match under his arm. His dad's, he guesses. It's kind of cute. There's also some sort of parcel on his back. It's a long dark bag that's about as long as Lance's arm. Huh. 

He runs up to Keith, looking excited. 

"Oh man, this is your bike? It's so much cooler than I was imagining," He admits. "I mean. It's alright," 

"Shut up," Keith retorts. It's not all the different from the one Lance has. It's a sports bike as well, but a newer model. He also took a lot more time to fix this one up. Eventually, he hopes to get the blue one in the garage this nice. Secretly, he's stopped referring to it as his own. Lance has been working hard on it. Doesn't seem right to take that away from him, especially since he's taken up an interest in learning how to ride a bike on his own. “What’s that thing?” He points at what Lance is carrying. 

“It’s… a surprise,” Lance grins and then winks. Even though this isn’t the first time he’s done it, Keith can’t help but look away, feeling flushed as he does so. “So am I gonna go get the blue one?” 

“No, I just figured we’d take this one. Yours is almost done. Wouldn’t want to mess it up and start all over,” Keith doesn’t mind if his bike looks a little dinged up, but he gets the feeling that Lance would want to keep his own bike a little more pristine. If he decides to keep his own, that is. “Hop on. There’s a pretty empty spot just a half hour from here,” 

Lance whistles. “Wow, I didn’t know we were gonna do a whole road trip,” Keith rolls his eyes, but smiles a bit. Before he can stop himself, he imagines a road trip between the two of them, on their own bikes. It’s not something that’s possible. Not with the current situation. “Do I just… sit?” 

Keith snorts. “That’s the idea,” Lance bites his lip, then finally straddles the bike. It moves a little under his weight. Keith isn’t used to having someone behind him, nor is has he ridden his bike as much as he’s wanted the past few years. “Put your helmet on, then hold on tight,” He tells him after he makes no move. 

There’s a beat, then Lance circles his arms around his waist. Though they’re both wearing leather jackets, Keith feels warmer. 

Though he’d like to start off fast, maybe give Lance a bit of a scare (or impress him), they’re in town and there are still rules and other people. Once he hits the highway, he’s speeding up. Lance’s grip on him tightens. There’s no real way to communicate with the equipment they have, he thinks he heard a bit of a squeal coming from Lance. Just that bit of hope makes him smile. 

Before long, he’s in an abandoned box store parking lot. There’s more than enough space, and the pavement isn’t shitty enough yet for Lance to be hindered in anyway. Out here, the stars shine a little brighter. If it was earlier in the year, Keith imagines that the crickets would be chirping pretty loud. He appreciates the quiet. Hopes Lance will, too. “So… there’s no one here to bother you, or get in the way. A good place to-” 

“This is awesome! I love the creepy vibe going on. Next time though? I’m bringing some lanterns. It’d be pretty cool for a romantic picnic under the stars,” Lance rubs at the back of his neck, the turns to look at Keith. “Doncha think?” 

“Um…” It is pretty dark. He didn’t think this through. And he completely forgot the cupcakes that Hunk made for him. Maybe he can just drop them off at Lance’s place tomorrow? What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. Depends on how this goes. “I wouldn’t really know,” 

Lance raises his brows. “What do you mean? Picnics are inherently romantic!” 

Keith shrugs lamely. “I’m not the best judge of character when it comes to that stuff,” He admits. A heavy stone settles in his stomach. Of course Lance would care about stuff like that. 

“Well, then I’ll be the judge for you,” Lance says easily. “Don’t worry about it. Seriously,” He slides the parcel’s strap off his shoulder and sets it on the ground gently. “So, teach me to ride a motorcycle! Then, the surprise,” 

“Why not the surprise first?”

“Uh… Well. If you don’t like it then we can just go back and pretend it never happened,” Lance says quickly. “So! Teach me now?” 

Keith is still trying to decide whether or not he likes surprises. He thinks that he’d prefer Lance just tell him what’s going on, especially if there’s a risk that he won’t like it. Instead, he lets Lance get away with it, mostly because he figures that Lance is already nervous. He’s pretending he’s not, but with the way he’s drumming his fingers against his leg makes his anxiety a dead give away.

“Have you ever driven stick?” Keith asks. 

“I have,” Lance nods. “But, uh, Keith, my boy, my man, there’s no-”

“I know. It’ll just make things easier for you, trust me. Now sit,” Keith gets close enough so that he can point out all the bits that Lance will need to know. When Lance swings his leg over and allows his weight to settle on the seat, he looks over at Keith with wide, delighted eyes. Seeing him on his bike is… something else. “Now this is the clutch…” 

It actually doesn’t take too long to explain all the components. The whole time, Lance is listening closely, asking questions, and using his hands to point things out. Honestly, it’s better than Keith imagined. He smiles when he tells Lance he’s ready to do a quick circle. After he’s put on his helmet. 

“If I’m just going in a circle I should be fine!” Lance argues. Keith crosses his arms. Look, he doesn’t like to wear it either (he wore it this time specifically so he wouldn’t hear any shit from Lance), but he’s not about to get Lance injured if it turns out he sucks at this. “Fine. Ugh,” He puts the helmet on again, then sticks his tongue out when he turns to look at Keith again. 

“Alright. Carefully release the clutch. Remember where the breaks and the throttle are. The rest is like riding a bike. Now go,” He takes a small step back to give Lance some room, then waits for him to make his first move. 

Lance takes a long moment for himself. Keith is watching so closely that he can see the moment when his hand begins to move. The bike jerks forward once. Lance is all tensed up, and he puts his foot down. “Relax. You can do this,” Keith says loudly. Lance tries again and actually manages to make a nice, slow circle around him. The longer he went, the more proud Keith felt. 

After three or four loops, Lance pulls to a slow stop. Lance punches the air with both fists. Then, he takes his helmet off and exclaims, “Holy shit! I did it! Keith, did you see that? I’m a fucking badass now!” He forgets to put the kickstand up and the bike almost falls off when he first gets off, but he thankfully catches the bike before any real damage is done to the vehicle. 

“Not bad,” Keith says. 

“Are you kidding me?” He runs up and stops just short of slamming into Keith. “That was amazing! A thousand times better than I imagined,” Now that he was up close, Keith can see that his face is slightly flushed. His hair is a bit of a mess, looking as though someone ran their fingers through his short locks. It’s a good look. 

“Wait until you hit the highway,” It’s thrilling and scary in all the right ways. He wants to do it again. Can even imagine doing it with Lance trailing behind him. 

“Yeah, but I need to get my motorcycle license thingy first,” He says. “Ugh, that’s going to take _forever_. And I need to save up money for my own motorcycle, too. But you know how to find some and fix them up, right? D’you think you could help me out with that?” Lance bites his lip. 

“Just keep the one you have,” Keith says easily. He’s surprised Lance didn’t just change his mind in the first place. 

“Wh- but you worked so hard on it!” Lance argues. “Weren’t you going to sell it? Y’know, once it was done?” 

Keith shrugs. “You worked on it, too. Makes more sense for you just to keep it,” 

Lance blinks, then smiles wide. “Seriously? You’re sure?” Keith nods. “Wow. Alright. Motorcycle buddies. One of these days I’m going to go faster than you. The student will definitely surpass the teacher,” His grin only grows. 

“Keep telling yourself that,” Keith answers. His blood sings at the prospect of a race. Of going faster than what feels possible. He hopes Lance is serious about his little challenge. Once he gets better at handling his own bike, that is. 

“Anyway… Since you’ve been sharing a bit of what you like to do, I figured,” Lance rocks back and forth on his heels. “Well. Ugh,” He walks towards the parcel Keith was probably supposed to watch a little more closely. Oh well, it didn’t get run over. Lance kneels down and unzips the bag, then pulls out- 

“A telescope?” Keith says. He gravitates towards it. He doesn’t know much about telescopes, but the sleek white material looks well taken care of. 

“Yeah,” Lance says. “I figured you were gonna take me far away from people so that I couldn’t, y’know, kill anyone. Plus I looked up the weather forecast and it said it’d be clear tonight and out here it’s easier to see the stars so I figured it might be cool if I brought this,” He takes a breath then continues, “But I get it if you think it’s lame. I could just put it away and we can keep doing motorcycle lessons and-” 

“Lance,” Keith crosses his arms. 

“Uh, yeah?” 

“Set it up,” 

Lance lets out a rush of air, then manages to smile again. He’s been doing that a lot this evening. Keith can feel himself mirroring the expression more often than not. 

If he’s being honest with himself, he is excited to see what Lance sees in the stars. If his life were a little different, he thinks he might want to go with him to see what’s out there. But being out here while Lance keeps checking the eyepiece and readjusting some of the knob things, he feels closer to the stars than he ever has. 

“Alright… I think this is a pretty good view. C’mere, check it out,” Lance bites his lip and takes a small step away from his telescope. “Don’t touch any of the knobs. We can move optical tube later on but-” 

Keith leans down and looks through the eyepiece. Through it, he can see just a small patch of the universe. He can see the craters on the moon in a higher definition, and some of the stars in the background glitter against the dark blanket of the sky. “It’s really pretty,” He finds himself saying. The words don’t feel like they carry enough weight to what he’s experiencing. 

Next to him, Lance hums. “Yeah, it’s… something else,” 

Keith stands upright. Weirdly, Lance looks away from him quickly. 

Okay.

With a few adjustments, Lance can show him different parts of the sky, point out different constellations. He seems to know them all. Every time Keith looks through the eyepiece he’s a little more enchanted by the stars. It’s as though he can reach out and touch them, without how Lance describes them. “If we got here earlier, we could’ve seen Mars, but we can do that another time, if you want,” Lance says. 

Seeing a planet sounds more than a cool idea, so he nods. “Yeah, that’d be great,” Next time he’ll try to remember to bring something to eat. He’s getting kind of hungry, but he also doesn’t want this night to end just yet. 

He pulls away from the eyepiece once more. Though this time when he looks up Lance is significantly closer. Before he has a chance to react (or, more likely, before his brain has time to realize what's happening), Lance is leaning in for a kiss. It's soft, unexpected, nice. Not so different from how he imagined it would be, as hard as he's tried not to imagine it. Lance's lips are warm against his own, making him forget all about the stars he was admiring moments ago. He wants to stay like this forever. 

When Lance touches his neck with his hand, Keith remembers the world that he's in. That they're not soulmates, that they're not meant to be together or last. It's not fair to Lance to pretend like they are something they're not. Even if he wants to kiss him again, he doesn't want to end up ruining Lance's chance with someone who he's really meant to be with. 

"Oh," Lance says quietly. 

"It's not a good idea," Keith tells him. He's looking down at the ground. All day he's been conserving his energy so he wouldn't have to see the strings, but now they're back in full force. He feels strangled, even just standing still. 

"You don't have to explain," Lance laughs a little, but it sounds off. Shit, he's the one who did that to him. As much as he knows that it's for the best, it still hurts. He doesn't want Lance to be the one that hurts, too. Even with Lance's suggestion, he feels like he should explain himself. For the first time, he wants to tell someone who knows nothing about his curse to see what he sees. Revealing that would mean telling Lance may not have a soulmate of his own. He doesn't think he has the stomach for that. "I'll just uh. Yeah. Pack this up," He takes his telescope apart bit by bit, the silence weighing down on the both of them. 

With what just happened, Keith knows that Lance will want to go home. He won't want to see Keith again for a long time, if ever. It's for the best, he tells himself again. He can't be the one to take whatever Lance has planned for him. 

The ride home is awkward. Lance's grip on him is loose, whereas before it felt almost like an embrace. Keith drives slower now that he can't will away the strings. 

He can't get his thoughts in order. There are visions of Lance disappearing from his day to day life, moving on, dating other people, forgetting about Keith. They've only known each other for a few weeks now, but if he disappears, there'd be a hole left behind. There have been others, but this is one he's not sure he can fill. 

Despite going slower on his bike, they arrive at Lance's house all too soon. He stands there awkwardly for a moment before he shrugs and says, "I guess I'll see you around?" 

Keith nods. It feels like an empty promise. He needs to give Lance the space he needs, but how long would it take before they could move past this? Keith drives off. With no traffic, it's just another two minutes before he's back home. He stomps up the stairs, unable to keep all the anger at bay. 

God, he hates this. He hates the fucking strings of fate. He hates feeling like he's the only one in the world who can't be happy with another person. Keith doesn't bother talking to Shiro, even though he so obviously waited up to see how it went. He should get the message by the way the door slams. 

After pacing back and forth for a few minutes, Keith feels like he has to do _something_ to relieve this growing pressure inside. He sees the conspiracy board hanging on his wall. It seems just after he decided to study the strings again, Lance came into his life to disrupt that decision. Though it's true that Allura helped him add something new, he's stuck here. The same place he's always been. Only now it feels like it's his own damn fault he's alone. He's the one who pushed Lance away tonight, not the strings. Lance doesn't even have one. Keith was just stuck on some maybe, some possibility that Lance might find someone better than him one day. And it's ruined everything else that would have come in between then and that kiss. 

He takes the board off the wall and breaks it over his knee. There's little satisfaction to it. So he continues to dismantle it to the best of his abilities. Tearing up the note cards, the threads that held them together, drawings of what the threads looked like. Before long, he's standing on the wreckage of his own making. It feels better, not having to stare at the own convoluted mess. As predicted, however, there's still that hole. It's fresh. Nothing will be able to fix it. Not now. He sighs and decides that he'll figure something out tomorrow. Maybe he'll even call Allura. He knows she'll listen. 

-

There was a time when he was caught hot wiring a car about 10 years ago. He remembers well sitting in a police department, wishing that he had gone a little bit faster. Maybe then he wouldn't have had to sit there while some cop was filling out paperwork, looking up his history, and judging him. His arms were crossed. If they were going to arrest him and put him in prison, he wished they would have done it sooner. The waiting had seeped into his bones. The urge to run was stronger than it had ever been. 

The cop leaned forward over his desk and said, "Y'know, if you were just a little older we could put you away. I can see your life going in two directions. You either get better at controlling how you feel, or you don't," As if he was going to listen to some asshole who didn't know anything about him. He huffed, unwilling to even acknowledge him. The cop just snorts. It made him angrier somehow. "Alright. I got an idea. You just wait here," 

The cop then disappeared, leaving Keith to think about the stupid shit he just pulled. It's not like he planned to steal a car. The door was open. It was a shitty car. It was like someone wanted it to be stolen. And for once, Keith didn't want to worry about the fucking strings distracting him, or let it hold him back. It had been years, and the strain of what they had already done to him had driven him half mad. He needed a taste of freedom. 

It took about 40 minutes before something happened. Some young guy came in along side the cop, looking way too cheery and ready to help. "This is Shiro, from the Outreach Program. He's here to help you get your shit together. I'd recommend you do," 

Keith remembers meeting Shiro very well. It was the first time he saw a golden thread. Of course it would be attached to the guy who radiated warmth. If he didn't have that golden thread, Keith is pretty sure he would've walked out of there. At the time, all he wanted to know was what made him so different from everyone else. 

Shiro drove him back to his foster home that night. "Y'know, you don't have to do this," He said at the time. "But I think you're more than what you did," 

Keith didn't say anything at the time. If he didn't have to hang out with Shiro, he wouldn't. But that golden thread haunted him. It wasn't even the only thread tied to his fingers. 

"I was planning on going camping next week with a few friends of mine. It's out of this city. Could get your mind off of things. And I have an extra sleeping bag," Shiro slowed to a stop in front of the house. The fence was half broken. There were kids half his age who were screaming inside over some stupid toy. He dreaded going back inside. He peeked over at Shiro, thinking about his offer. "I might even let you drive. I promise I won't tell the cops," He added with a small smile. 

It could've been the thread. It could've been the invitation to get out. Or it could've been something different. The truth was, there was something about Shiro that made Keith feel a little less angry. So he ended up nodding slowly. "Okay," He didn't think that some stupid camping trip with some guy he just met would change his life. But that weekend he ended up meeting Matt and Pidge. Once he got over himself, he actually ended up having a good time. Those friends he made stuck by him even though they didn't have any threads that made their way back to him. It'd take a long time for him to realize that.

-

The next morning, Keith feels like absolute shit. He didn’t really get a lot of sleep. When he gets into the living room, he can hear Shiro talking with Allura on the phone. He must be one of the few people in his twenties who prefer that over texting. Along with fellow early bird Allura, that is. 

Keith watches him for a moment. He touches his pocket where his own cell phone is. Last time he used it is when he texted Lance that he was coming over last night. He itches to pull it out now. Almost does. Instead, he turns around. There’s a reason he did this, he tells himself. 

On the table there’s a small white box with a red string tied keeping it closed. Figures. It’s the box of cupcakes that Hunk made for him and Lance last night. He’s forgotten about it again. Keith withdraws his pocket night and cuts the string off. Inside are six cupcakes with purple icing. 

Despite the fact that they aren't fresh, they still smell pretty good. The icing itself doesn't look like it's hardened. He's tempted to take one out and eat it. He's also tempted to just throw them out and forget about them. 

Shiro is laughing again just a room away. Keith's attention diverts for a moment when he hears his brother gets up and heads towards the kitchen. "Hey, you alright? You didn't mention how last night went," He's leaning against the wall, with his phone wedged between his shoulder and his ear. Keith is pretty sure that Allura is listening hard for some sort of answer. Both she and Shiro are so nosy sometimes. They work well together. And she wasn't even sure that they'd be good friends. Keith bets that even if Allura never learned about the truth, she'd still call him all the time.

"I'm going out," Keith says. As if a switch has flipped, he's reaching for his jacket and going through the bus schedule in his head. There's still time before he has to go to work today. 

"Okay... did you want a ride, or-"

"No," Keith doesn't need Shiro there giving him advice or trying to keep him patient the entire time. If he does, Keith might change his mind. He needs to keep this momentum up. As he ties his boots up, he can see out of the corner of his eye Shiro struggle not to say anything. That's fine. He's figured out when not to derail him when he's in a mood like this. "I'll see you later," Keith tells him, finishing up by zipping up his coat to the top. Then, he grabs the box of cupcakes and heads out the door. 

-

It's harder than he thought it'd be, getting his way around campus. He just hopes he remembered the time right. Part of the problem of winging things is not being sure how well he's timed things. But he still doesn't regret turning down Shiro's offer for a ride. 

The Garrison building is made of beautiful red brick. There's even some ivy climbing up the side, though it's far past the season for a bit of green. Just as Lance described the science building when he was explaining about the program a little more in depth. Keith enters feeling a little silly carrying the box now. More than a few of the students have glanced at him, the prospect of free food making them wonder whether or not they should trail behind him. Animals. 

At some point, he has to ask where Professor Smythe's class is in the administrative office. The woman behind the desk gives him a bit of a dry look before pointing him in the right direction. Lance's class will be letting out in just a few minutes. 

Once he arrives at the door, he begins to doubt himself. Whether or not this is a good idea. He hasn't even figured out what he's going to say. Or if Lance is going to listen. Any person would probably want some space after something like last night. 

Before he gets a chance to make a decision, students start filtering out of the door. Keith backs up until he's nearly up against the wall. He looks at all the different people, trying to spot Lance. So far, no one is coming up. He worries that Lance decided to skip class today, though he remembers that this is one of his favorite ones. 

Lance pops up just as he's about to walk away. He's spotted not to long after. Lance frowns, and looks at Keith in disbelief. He sighs loudly before approaching him. "Uh, hey Keith," He looks after the students who are all trailing away, leaving the hallway feeling emptier than it should be. The sound of Lance's fingers drumming against his thigh only reflect the inactivity. "What're you doing here?" 

Keith does not have a good answer. He holds out the box of cupcakes. "Hunk made these. I was supposed to bring them last night, but..." He shrugs. It feels like the wrong answer, but Lance takes them anyway. 

Lance lifts the lid and laughs quietly. "I'm impressed you didn't actually eat any of these. Hunk is an amazing cook," He closes the lid gently, then looks around for a moment. Keith rubs his thumb against his knuckles. "Look man," Lance still isn't looking at him. He wishes that Lance would just look at him for a minute. Though whether or not that would actually make things easier is hard to say. "You don't have to do this. I made a move, you weren't into it. It's cool. I'll get over it," 

Say something, Keith thinks. Anything. Fix this. "Um," A good start. "I don't want you to," 

To which Lance laughs a little nervously. "I'm getting a lot of mixed signals here, dude. Just tell me what's going on. I promise I can take it," He looks down the hallway again. There's a group of people further down who giggle. It has nothing to do with them, and yet it still has the power to make him feel wildly uncomfortable.

"I'm not good at this," Keith admits. He remembers all the times he's been left behind, and he's convinced himself that there is no place for him. Part of him still thinks that. But he's tired of putting up wall after wall. By this point, it's done more harm than good. Putting that feeling into words is impossible. "But you make me want to try," That mostly makes sense. He thinks. 

"So..." Lance bites his lip and leans in a little. "Does that mean you want to date me or what?" Now his fingers are drumming against the cupcake box. “I just want to make sure this time instead of assuming and then I’m caught in an awkward position all over again…” 

Keith takes a deep breath. “Yeah,” He says. A weight that was pressing down on him lifts. He’s not sure how long that’s been sitting on his shoulders. “Yeah, I want to date you,” 

At that moment, he watches Lance’s expression change from something unsure to something akin to the sun rising in the morning. “That’s great! Yes!” He fists the air, looking like the ending of an eighties movie, before he nearly drops the cupcakes and rights himself. “I mean, yeah. That’s awesome,” 

Nerves make Keith’s fingers shake. He didn’t even really think about what he was going to do when he got here, now suddenly, he’s dating Lance? He doesn’t even really know what that means. Is it possible to be excited and also want to throw up at the same time? So many things could go wrong. He knows that more than most. 

“Hey,” Lance says again. “We’ll take it slow, alright? And communicate and shit. Probably something I should work on too, to be honest,” Keith smiles and nods, knowing that Lance will try his best to do just that. And while there are things Keith isn’t ready to talk about yet, he’s… hopeful. “So… you want to go get some food? I got some time before my next class. Or we could just hit the cafeteria and eat all these cupcakes. I can’t believe you forgot them,” 

“Cupcakes are not lunch. But there’s stuff in the cafeteria, right?” Lance nods, and he begins to direct him towards the building. On their way, Lance nudges Keith’s hand with his own, but doesn’t push more than that. It’s not a hard decision to make. Keith reaches out with his own and holds Lance’s hand. The way their fingers slot together feels right. 

Keith pushes the door open and notices something off. The strings, though he’s making no attempt to make them less visible, are blurry. Harder to see. Whether it’s because he’s standing next to Lance, or he’s had some inner epiphany, he doesn’t know. And right now, he doesn’t care. 

-

A few months later 

-

Keith parks his bike just outside the complex. It’s smaller than the last place he lived in, but that’s what he gets for living with a natural achiever like Shiro. Regardless, he likes this new place. Though it’s not too far from the university, it’s a quieter area. He fishes out his keys and heads inside. 

Lance is sitting at their table, pouring over his notes. Finals are coming up, and he wants to make sure he gets the best grades in the class. Keith has no doubt that he’ll be able to do just that, but also knows that he needs every bit of space to get to where he needs to be. So instead, Keith goes to their room and lays down on their bed. After talking with a client for a few hours trying to sell a new bike, he deserves the rest. 

It’s a little softer than he’d like it to be, but he’s never slept better than since he and Lance started sleeping together. Well, once he got used to having to share a bed. It turns out that Keith is a blanket hog. It turns out Lance is one, too. Now their bed has two blankets. They make it work. 

From here, he can hear a chair scrape across the shitty wooden floors, followed by a soft set of footsteps. Before he knows it, Lance is draping himself over Keith, smothering him. “I’m dead,” He grumbles into the crook of his neck. 

“That so?” Keith replies. “You already died 4 times this week. Must be a new record,” 

“Shush,” Lance tries to press his hand against Keith’s mouth, but since he wasn’t looking he ends up smacking his nose instead. A few more face pats later, and he finally lands on his mouth. “I’m allowed to die as much or as little as I want,” 

“Mmmph,”

“That’s right,” Lance lets his hand slide down to Keith’s cheek. After he sits up awkwardly, they share a kiss. They end up kissing for a couple of minutes. And honestly? Keith gets lost in small acts like this easily. Lance’s lips are soft, and his boyfriend always makes an effort to smell good. Keith presses his own hand to Lance’slower back, and running his hands along the seam of his pants. He can taste coffee on his tongue. “Wait, stop-” Lance pushes himself off of Keith and to the side. “I can’t have you distracting me with your… distracting-ness,”

Keith snorts. He’s a little surprised that they didn’t make out for a few more minutes, but Lance has a resolve that might surprise anyone who didn’t know him well enough. “If you’re already making up words, it looks like you need that break anyway,” And Keith never minds kissing Lance. He’s always up for it. Though he’s still getting used to the PDA Lance shows naturally. 

“Shut up,” Lance shakes his head. “Just wait until you start pilot school. Then we’ll see how smug you are,” 

Keith groans. He’s saved up enough money to give being a pilot a shot. It’s expensive, but between his small business of fixing up bikes and Hunk’s place, he thinks he can manage it. If he does well, he might even get a few grants down the line. It may not be the stars that Lance will surely touch, but one day he hopes to fly faster than ever believed. He doesn’t have much holding him back now. “I bet it’ll be a breeze,” He says with a shrug, knowing just how much it’ll annoy Lance. 

Annoy him he does. “You’re the _worst_ ,” Lance nudges his shoulder. “But I think I like you anyway,” 

“I think I like you too,” Keith admits quietly. Then he takes Lance’s hand in his own and kisses his knuckles. 

It’d be a lie to say that Keith doesn’t think about the strings from time to time. But honestly? Whatever bullshit the future holds, whatever stress, he knows that they can handle it. Keith hasn’t let some existential curse dictate his life for months now. And he’s not going to let it ever again.

**Author's Note:**

> aaaand that's it! please leave a comment and some kudos. and if you REALLY want to help me out, follow me on miraculance and reblog this work. no obligations though, i am more than happy that you've gotten this far. i've got two more fics coming soon, something super angsty and something completely ridiculous. thank you all again for all your support. <333


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